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Yesterday at Booklights I talked about monster books that are perfect for Halloween but aren’t shelved in the holiday section of your library in case, say, you were supposed to get a book for reading to your child’s class and somehow put it off until the last minute and then realized that the only thing you had in the house was Clifford’s Halloween and you were not using that because okay, he’s a BIG dog and you so get it already and there has to be something better and there totally was except all the moms who were doing their job correctly made it to the library when they should have and left the shelves empty except for one beat-up copy of Clifford’s Halloween which would make you scream, but with a deep breath you remember the monster books at Booklights  with some additional suggestions in the comments from Abby (the) Librarian  so you can pick out something very appropriate and fun for the kids.

In that post, I mentioned the two poetry books of Adam Rex, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Amazing, funny, brilliant, books with incredible artistry. A better blogger would now spend some time reviewing one or the other of them, but I expended all of my energy on that run-on sentence above. So instead you’ll get a poem. And not even the whole poem, because now I’m getting freaked out by the legality of that. Plus the whole poem really needs the illustrations to make it work to its full potential. But in any case, here is the beginning and you can get the book to see how Girl Scouts fit in.

Folloween

No ghosts are seen on Halloween,except for kids in sheets.No zombies ring for anythingapart from tricks or treats.Though people saytoday’s the daywhen bogeymencome out to play,November first is when the worstof monsters hit the streets.

And in disguise the dead ariseto sell us magazines.In ties and slacksthey hand out tractsas fine, upstanding teens.

Before I got to the second part of the poem, I was absolutely certain that he was going to talk about election campaigners. I don’t know how it’s been in other parts of the country, but in Virginia the election is huge, with the Republican candidate for governor leading by double digits in a state that went blue in 2008. I’ve been getting tons of calls and campaigners coming by and flyers at every local event. Obama even came to a rally in Norfolk, but a little late, I think. The only thing that could really help the Democrats now is if people take the new health care legislation seriously and don’t want Virginia to opt out of a public health care choice. In any case, they’ll have to campaign without me on Folloween because I need this weekend to catch up on things I let go for the last two months.

I also need time to prepare  possibly  for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve never been interested before, but I do have a book in my head and maybe this is the time to let it out. I don’t know. Is it crazy to go from being consumed by KidLitCon to committing to writing a novel in a month? Are you doing it this year? If you did it before, was it worth the pressure?

Okay, here's the thing about NaNoWriMo. In order to be successful, you have to stop caring if your writing is good. There is no time to rewrite and there's hardly any time to even stop and think. SO if you can stop caring about whether your writing is good, DO IT. I have had such fun with it and I'm so excited to start my novel this year!

Some years I've found more stressful than others, usually dependent on how much I love my idea. Some years (like when I was in library school), NaNoveling was actually a stress release because unlike writing papers (or, say, blog posts that thousands of people will read), when you write your NaNo novel you can just follow your imagination and write something that helps you escape from your own life for a little bit.

ANYhoo. You should totally do it. The community is awesome, more and more bloggers are taking part, and it's something I look forward to every year!

PLUS, I will be your writing buddy and send you encouraging messages like "You can do it!", etc. ;)

I love Nanwrimo! I participated for the first time last year and had a blast. I'm ready to go for it again. It's fun because writing a novel for a month is such an insane thing to do that the Inner Critic gets completely shut down in the mad rush for words, words, words! I encourage you to sign up and give it a try.

Yes, "November first is when the worst/of monsters hit the streets" in Ohio, too. (Actually, the election nonsense started way back in the summer, but it's at a frenzy now.) Ohio voters will decide whether or not to amend the state constitution to allow casino gambling in our state. ...Those words shouldn't be allowed to be in the same sentence (amend constitution and casino gambling). REE-DICKALUS!

I think if you have an idea in your head then you absolutely have to give it wings. NaNoWriMo seems the perfect opportunity to do so. Plus you have a lovely family who would encourage and support you and a blogging community who will be rooting for you!! Go Dog Go!

Hello,I am an intern at Simon & Schuster in the children’s department, and I was hoping I could get your mailing address. We would love to be able to send books for possible reviews in your blogs and other promotional information. If you would like to specify what kinds of children's books you prefer, I will happily make a note of it for you. My email address is Rainna.Erikson@simonandschuster.com.Sincerely, Rainna EriksonPublicity InternSimon & Schuster Children's Publishing1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020(212) 698-2841

The Rundown

One of the bestselling preschool books of recent times was Walter the Farting Dog. At the same time, the American Library Association named as one of its best books Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, a book in which Mr. Rosen talks about his despair over the death of his son. I believe that, for most of us, what we want lies somewhere between a flatulent canine and overwhelming grief.